AA1, Sem2, Wk3 – Sound Design Analysis

I chose Turbulence 2. I imagined this had the prescribed dollops of over produced Hollywood audio I was after. The section I selected from my mid-air masterpiece didn't contain much natural sound. Much of the ambience is hyper-real; small sounds expanded, non-diegetic sound effects coming from outside and inside the plane – disrelated rattling and rumbling, jet engines fading in and out – all done in post one would think. Although the fire engine sirens and the section at the end on the aeroplane gangway may be largely natural.

Turbulence 2

(TC 1:23:54 – 1:27:45)

General Areas - Soundscapes, Ambience:

Music builds throughout (non-diegetic) modulating upward as the action builds, stopping briefly when the plane lands.

1/ Cockpit Ambience:
Rattling, rumbling and a deep windy sound (all non-diegetic), sound of instruments (hyper-real) whizzing from low to high and clicking. Something that sounds like a shopping trolley banging against a wall (asynchronous?). There are synchonous sounds in the cockpit scenes - the warning light and its beep aural sound motif and the instrument panel sounds take on vital meaning. Headphone instructions from flight tower.

2/ In the flight tower:
Music and diegetic dialogue of instructions to the pilot and the pilot's distant, detached and extremely reflected voice relayed over the flight tower public address speakers. People can be seen busily operating computers in the background, but no walla. This adds contrast and intenstity with the 'busy' cockpit.

3/ Passenger section:
General panic walla, 'we're gonna die,' etc. Asynchronous sound of occasional suitcase sliding around the floor. Much hyper-real, non-diegetic rumbling, heavy thunder. No sign of lightning through any windows. Once landed, two characters enter into dialogue.

Analysing the obvious range of sounds used in this sound design was both tedious and predictable. There was depth and production values, but the main benefits were in highlighting elements of cliché sound design and improving my ear.

Things heard but not featured:

Door Slams
Military Equipment; guns getting cocked
Military instructions being barked
Passenger Panic
Plane touchdown; tyres on wet runway
Whooshes
Moist sounds
Wind, elements

Knowles Marshall, Jane . 1988, An Introduction to Film Sound 2006.
http://www.filmsound.org/marshall/index.htm. Accessed 8 August 2007.

"Diegetic and Non-Diagetic Sound." FilmSound.Org.
http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm. Accessed August 8, 2007.

pp xv - 12. Sonnenschein, David. 2001, Sound design : the expressive power of music,
voice, and sound effects in cinema, Michael Wiese Productions, Seattle, Wash.

Haines, Christian. "Sound Scene." Audio Arts 1, Sound Design, August Semester 2, 2007.

"Turbulence 2". Trimark Pictures, copyright 2002